Summary : Have you got tired of the same age old Windows logo on the Start Button? If you want a change, there is a way.

Have you got tired of the same age old Windows logo on the Start Button? If you want a change, there is a way.

A free software called Windows 7 Start Button Changer can do it. It works with both 32bit and 64bit versions of Windows 7. The software provides pre-made Start Orbs and you can create your own.

First, download the free Windows 7 Start Button Changer (link below), and extract the contents of the folder. It contains the app along with a selection of alternate start button orbs you can try out.

Before changing the start button, we advise creating a System Restore point in case anything goes wrong. Enter System Restore in your Start menu search, and select “Create a restore point”.

We tested this on both the 32 bit and 64 bit editions of Windows 7, and didn’t encounter any problems or stability issues. That said, it is always prudent to make a restore point just in case a problem did happen.

1. Run the tool as administrator and click on "Select & Change Start Button".

2. When it asks for the new start orb bitmap, either choose from any of the sample start orb bitmaps provided or choose the one you have.
If you have changed the start orb bitmap for the first time using this tool then it will create a backup of the unmodified explorer.exe.

3. The Windows Explorer will now restart automatically and you will get the new start orb/button which you choosed.

Run the Windows 7 Start Button Changer as administrator by right-clicking on it and selecting “Run as administrator”. Accept the UAC prompt that will appear.

If you don’t run it as an administrator, you may see the following warning. Click Quit, and then run again as administrator.

You should now see the Windows 7 Start Button Changer. On the left it shows what your current (default) start orb looks like inactive, when hovered over, and when selected. Click the orb on the right to select a new start button.

Here we browsed to the sample orbs folder, and selected one of them. Let’s give Windows the Media Center orb for a start orb. Click the orb you want, and then select open.

When you click Open, your screen will momentarily freeze and your taskbar will disappear. When it reappears, your computer will have gone from having the old, default Start orb style…

Now, the Windows 7 Start Orb Changer will change, and show your new Start orb on the left side. If you would like to revert to the default orb, simply click the folder icon to restore it. Or, if you would like to change the orb again, restore the original first and then select a new one.

The orbs don’t have to be round; here’s a fancy Windows 7 logo as the start button.

There are tons of orbs available, including this cute smiley, so choose one that you like to make your computer uniquely yours.

The start orb change will work in the Aero and Aero basic (which Windows 7 Start uses) themes, but will not show up in the classic, Windows 2000 style themes. Here’s how the new start button looks with the Aero Classic theme:
If you want to revert to the original start orb then click on "Restore Original Explorer Backup".

Summary : Windows 7 and Vista have change the Sleep/Shutdown button into an “Install Updates and Shut Down” button, thus make me uncomfortable.

Maybe most people who running Windows 7 or Vista will notice that Windows 7 and Vista have change the Sleep/Shutdown button into an “Install Updates and Shut Down” button whenever there are updates from Windows Update. If you always use the Sleep function on your computer by running XP, you will not accustom to the change when you come to Windows 7 or Vista. Here, I introduce how to stop Windows Update from Hijacking the Sleep/Shutdown Button in Windows 7 or Vista.

Here are the screenshots of the change.

Manual Registry Hack

If you’d like to manually create this hack, you can open up regedit.exe using the start menu search box and then browse down to the following key, creating the key if it doesn’t exist.

Add a 32-bit DWORD value called NoAUAsDefaultShutdownOption with a value of 1. No reboot should be necessary.

Now our Sleep button should be back to the way it was, but if you wanted to use the Install Updates and Shut Down option, it’s still available via the shutdown menu:

Download Registry Hack
Unzip the file and double-click on the StopHijackingMySleepButton.reg file to activate the registry hack. You shouldn’t have to restart anything, as the changes will happen immediately. There’s also a registry file to uninstall the hack.

Summary : Have you ever tried to share it between different versions of windows?

You can share files and printers between the same system easily. Have you ever tried to share it between different versions of windows? Now i will show you how to share files and folders between windows XP and windows 7 computers.

Sharing Files In Windows 7 and XP

If you have tried use HomeGroup to share files, you must find that HomeGroup is not compatible with windows XP and windows 7. So we should try other ways.

First make sure both machines are members of the same Workgroup which by default is named Workgroup.

On the Windows 7 machine go into Control Panel \ All Control Panel Items \ Network and Sharing Center then click on Change advanced sharing settings.

You will want to verify the following settings under Advanced Sharing Settings for the Home or Work and Public profile.

If you want to keep it enabled make sure there is a log in account for the other XP machines and they have a password.

If you want any user to have access the public shares turn off password protection. This is located in Advanced Sharing Settings toward the bottom of the list.

You should see your XP machine and the Windows 7 as well which in this case is Mysticgeek-PC when you go into Network in Windows 7.

To share the printer on the Windows 7 machine go into Devices and Printers from the Start menu and double click on the printer icon.

Next double click on “Customize your printer”.

If your XP machine is an x86 OS you can install Additional Drivers before setting up the XP machine.

In the Properties screen click on the Sharing Tab and check the box to share the printer and type in its share name.

To set up the shared printer in XP you will need to go into Printers and Faxes from the Start menu and kick off the Add Printer Wizard.

Now select “A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer” then hit Next.

Next select “Connect to this printer…” and type in the path for the printer connected to the Windows 7 machine and click next.

Now click Yes to the confirmation message.

Then click Finish the printer to install and complete the Wizard.

In some cases you will need to install the x86 XP drivers for the shared printer because the Windows 7 drivers are not compatible with XP. When everything is installed open up Printers and Faxes to find the shared printer.

To find the shared folders and devices double click on the Windows 7 machine icon under Network. Here you can see the printer connected to my Windows 7 machine is shared and also the Users Folder.

Continue into the Users folder and Public to see the shared folders, here I also created a folder called XP Share just to keep everything in central location.

Over on your XP machine open up My Network Places to find the Windows 7 (mysticgeek-pc) shared folder.

Double click on the Share folder to find a list of shared folders in the Public folder on Windows 7. If you have password protection enabled you will need to type in the username and password of the user account on the Windows 7 machine first.

We shared them without HomeGroup.And then you can get your files and some devices both in windows 7 and windows XP.It makes computer operations so convenient.

• Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7

Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7To upgrade your PC from Windows XP to Windows 7, you can follow our simple 5-step tutorial on Windows 7 installation. This five-step tutorial helps guide you through the entire process each step of the way.

• Upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7

To upgrade your PC from Windows Vista to Windows 7, you can follow our step-by-step tutorial to upgrade your system from Windows Vista to a corresponding or higher edition of Windows 7

Windows 7 Upgrade - Step 1 : Check if your PC is Windows 7 compatible

Not every computers are Windows 7 comptaible. Windows 7 has its own hardware requirements. "Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor" can check your computer compatibility. It scans your PC for potential issues with your hardware, devices, and installed programs, and recommends what to do before you upgrade.

"Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor" is free and clean. You can directly download it below.

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor 2.0

Windows 7 Upgrade - Step 2 : Moving & Saving files and settings

If you upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7, you have to reinstall Windows 7 from scratch. All your data will be deleted during the custom installation of Windows 7. There is no alternative and painless way. We recommend you "Windows Easy Transfer" here. It can automatically backup all your stuffs including files, photos, music, emails, settings, and more. Restroe them back to your new Windows 7 only takes one click.

If you upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7, Microsoft provides a smoothly upgrade. Your files and settings will be kept untouch. However we still highly recommend you to backup your files and settings if they are important to you. Due to the hardware varisity, no one can guarantee a 100% error-free upgrade.

"Windows Easy Transfer" is free and clean. You can directly download it below.

Windows 7 Upgrade - Step 3 : Upgrade your PC to Windows 7

When upgrade your PC from Windows XP to Windows 7, you can only choose the Custom option during installation and you install a new copy of Windows on your PC.

When upgrade your PC from Windows Vista from Windows 7, you can choose both Upgrade and Custom options. If you choose Upgrade option, you keep your files, settings, and programs from Windows Vista.
If you choose Custom option, this option does not preserve your files, settings, or programs. You'll need to back up your files and settings before installing Windows 7.
If you don’t have a Windows 7 installation setup.exe, you can purchase and download from below links.

Upgrading your drivers is the first thing you should do after Windows 7 upgrade. Driver is the bridge between your hardware and system. An outdated driver could slow down your system and even make your system unstable. Data shows that 60% of computer errors and crashes are driver related. Hardware manufactures keep developing the latest drivers to keep its hardware stable and at peak performance.

We recommend to download and install from the Windows 7 Software on PCWatch.com. All software on PCWatch.com are clean and virus-free , which will scan your driver's problem and automatically keep all your drivers updated.

Summary : Learn how to keep your computer safe with KidSafe.

Have you ever felt annoying of your little childrens' making trouble (Like they always play with the keyboard but actually they don't know what they do. Just for fun!) expecially when you really want to keep your computer, files and settings safe.Now I will show you how to keep your computer safe with KidSafe.

Note: There are two versions available, a regular zip file setup and a portable apps version. Here we use the portable one.

Setup
I think the great thing about the newest version of KidSafe is that it comes in that wonderful portableapps.com format so that it can go where you go.

You can see the “Program Folder” has the usual contents. Place the folder in a convenient location or you can choose to create a shortcut where you are ready to go.

You will see this when the program starts because this software is still new to the portable apps format.

KidSafe in Action

Once you start KidSafe, your screen will be “covered” while setting the program up. There are two menus (Tools and Help) in the upper left corner. Tthe “Tool Menu” will require the password that you will set up for KidSafe. So you will not worry that your young child can easily go in and change your settings.

A closer look at the active part of the screen shown above. Just click on “OK” to get started with the options/setup.

Here, there are three options/setup windows for KidSafe. Iin the first one you can change any settings that you feel necessary for keys, keyboard combinations, Task Manager access, etc. In this test, we choose to “locked” the “Windows Key” because it was not a keyboard combination.

Note: Highlight/select existing entries from the right side to change them.

If you want to get more information about a particular setting, just hover your mouse over the yes/no blank and then a tooltip with a description of what the setting does will appear.

In the second window, you will need to select the “KidSafe Mode” that best suits your needs. Of course, you may also choose a specific wallpaper background (.bmp, .jpg, or .png format) if desired or let KidSafe use a default one (leave it blank).

In the screenshot below are the “KidSafe Mode” choices available in the drop down menu.
The final window will be where you set up your password for KidSafe. Just click “Finish” if you have done.
After you click “Finish” in the options/settings, KidSafe will be active. Here we gave the keyboard a “pretty rough go” on our system and KidSafe did a perfect job. Actually the only way we got back into the system was to use the password.

Note: This is not the default wallpaper for KidSafe.Note :To unlock KidSafe you will need to enter your password and click on “OK”. Hitting “Enter” will not work.